Universal Releasing Blu-Rays of King Kong Vs. Godzilla & King Kong Escapes on April 1, 2014 – NO Japanese Versions

Greetings, Guys and Ghouls!

Ye Olde Dragon here, with news of more Blu-ray releases from Kaiju land. Unfortunately, it’s not that much to get terribly excited about.

Last night, while perusing Amazon.com’s preorder section I came across two entries coming out on April 1 (sadly appropriate). Universal is releasing Blu-ray versions of the two Toho films that they have exclusive rights to as far as home-video distribution – King Kong vs. Godzillaand King Kong Escapes.

The reason I say April 1 is appropriate for this release, because the joke is on us in that once more we are not getting the Japanese versions of these films included in these releases. At least, that’s what I gather based on the product data on Amazon’s product pages: English-language dialogue and subtitles for hearing impaired viewers.

These are basically just Blu-ray rehashings of the DVD releases from a few years back, right down to the sleeve art. Frankly, I find this to be inexcusable to withhold these versions from fans for so long, especially considering that this year is Godzilla’s 60th anniversary. You would think that with such vocal demand thrown at them by the always loud Godzilla fandom, Universal would realize they stand to make a killing at the cash register thereby making it worth their time to work something out with Toho, if in fact there is some sort of legal snafu preventing them from releasing the Japanese versions.

They are missing such an opportunity with this format and it frustrates me and makes me very sad. If someone does indeed know of a legitimate reason why universal cannot include the original versions of these two films, can you fill us in please? I mean an actual, official reason and not supposition and/or conjecture, which is all we’ve been able to do these past few years. With an MSRP of $19.95 (or even Amazon’s pre-order price of $13.86) for each film, they must really take us for April fools if they think we’re interested in such a lackluster offering. Better luck next time, Universal.